Reducing health inequalities in general practice: towards a Flemish action framework

Leen Van Brussel, An Bosqué

Keywords: Health inequalities; general practice; action framework

Setting:

We will implement the action framework 'Reducing health inequalities' in the setting of general practices in Flanders with the aid of different strategies. First, an article will be published in 'Huisarts Nu'. Second, the framework will be integrated in the prevention policy plan of Domus Medica. Third, the framework will be tested in a selection of general practices. Fourth, we will provide trainings to familiarize general practices with the framework.

Target group:

General practices in Flanders.

Description of the innovative practice or project:

We present an action framework that supports general practice in Flanders in reducing social health in equalities in their patient population (and beyond). We draw from the realist review of Gkiouleka and colleagues (2023) to build this framework around four principes that need to inform general practice:
1/general practices are connected to other services and actors (connected);
2/general practices take into account inequalities across and within patient groups (intersectional);
3/ general practices make allowance for different patient and community needs (flexible);
4/general practices integrate patient worldviews and cultural references (inclusive).
These principles can be operationalized in 4 domains of the general practice : organizational policies; organizational practices; values, beliefs and norms; and interpersonal communication. We suggest exemplary interventions and supportive tools within each of these domains.

Evaluation:

We will adopt the REAIM-framework to evaluate the action framework:
- Reach, eg. number of registrations and article downloads
- Adoption: the number of general practices that take it up
- Implementation and effects, eg. the number of actions that are reviewed against the principes of the framework, the awareness and motivation of general practices and the perceived user-friendliness of the framework.

Next Steps:

In a next step, the action framework will be published in 'HuisartsNu' and integrated in the Domus Medica prevention policy plan. We will then recruit a number of general practices to test the framework.

Lessons learned:

To be identified

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